Norwood Teague named finalist for University of Minnesota Director of Athletics

Teague visits Twin Cities campus and meets with President on Monday

April 22, 2012

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler has announced Norwood Teague as the finalist for the university’s director of athletics position.

Teague is currently the director of athletics for Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and has held that position since July 2006. He has more than 20 years of experience working in intercollegiate athletics throughout the nation. Teague, 46, is a native of Raleigh, N.C. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1988 with a degree in political science. In 1992, Teague earned a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University.

“He rose to the top of the candidate pool not only because of his proven history of success but because he is genuine and authentic. He has a superlative track record of fundraising and attracting and retaining high quality coaches. He’s committed to maintaining an academic standard of excellence that is a tradition of Gopher Athletics. And he has the expertise, values and work ethic to ensure that athletics at the U of M will reach an even greater level of success,” said Mary Jo Kane, director of the university’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport and co-chair of the athletics director search.

Teague is visiting campus Monday and will interview with President Kaler and the search advisory committee and will meet with coaches, faculty and senior leaders.

Monday’s interviews are the final steps of a two-month national search co-chaired by R. Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the university, and Kane. A search advisory committee and a four-person search committee worked with the leading national executive search firm in collegiate athletics — Parker Executive Search — to engage a variety of stakeholders and diverse viewpoints in the process.

“This intensive search process included four listening sessions, during which we heard from faculty, staff, student athletes, community members and other key stakeholders,” Kane said. “They made it clear – and Vice President Mulcahy and I couldn’t agree more - that they wanted to see a finalist that embodies integrity, visionary leadership and management experience, good communication, a focus on student-athletes both on and off the court, fundraising acumen and an overall commitment to excellence at the University of Minnesota. We’re confident Norwood Teague is that finalist.”

Teague was one of about 40 candidates to apply for the position. Candidates included women, people of color and non-traditional candidates.

During his tenure at VCU, Teague has overseen continued success in the classroom and on the playing field, as well as stunning growth in gifts to VCU’s annual and capital funds. This past year, the average GPA for all VCU student athletes was 3.0 and last year’s Graduation Success Rate was the highest ever attained by VCU athletics.

Since Teague’s arrival, the VCU athletic annual fund has increased more than 119 percent, with annual average increases of more than 20 percent. Teague is lauded for his work in advancing construction for athletics including a campaign to build a $10 million VCU practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball and other sports.

Teague has also led VCU to all-time high Verizon Wireless Arena attendance records, and season ticket revenue has doubled since his arrival at VCU.

VCU has also achieved heightened athletic success under Teague’s guidance. The Rams’ men’s basketball team reached its first ever Final Four in 2011; women’s basketball earned the first NCAA Tournament bid in program history; the baseball, golf and tennis programs all made multiple postseason appearances; and the track program had several student-athletes qualify for NCAA regional appearances.

Teague arrived at VCU after five years as associate athletic director at the University of North Carolina, where he oversaw external operations such as the Tar Heels’ multimedia property, marketing and licensing. Prior to that, Teague honed his craft at some of the nation’s most prestigious athletic departments. From 1999-2001, he served as general manager of the Sun Devil Sports Network at Arizona State. While in Tempe, he increased sales and negotiated several multi-year television contracts. Teague oversaw radio, television, Internet and signage operations, while operating in one of America’s top 20 media markets.

During 1998-99, Teague headed up new programs for Vilcom Sports and The Tar Heel Sports Network at the University of North Carolina.

At the University of Virginia Athletic Department from 1993-98, Teague worked as director of marketing, and then served as the director of operations for the Cavaliers’ men’s basketball program under Jeff Jones.

Gophers Athletics is nationally lauded for both academic and competitive success. The program has recorded top-15 finishes in Directors’ Cup standings two of the last three academic years, and has been in the top 30 for 16 consecutive years. Befitting its stature as one of the nation’s premier public research and land grant universities, Minnesota placed 68 student-athletes on the Big Ten Conference Distinguished Scholar Athletes list in 2010-11, matching Michigan State for most honorees by an individual school.

Minnesota’s 25-sport program boasts impressive facilities, including TCF Bank Stadium, the conference’s first new on-campus stadium in nearly 50 years. With more than 500,000 “U” alumni, the Twin Cities campus draws an average of nearly 1 million fans to Gopher athletic events annually.